The Advisory Board is a forum through which the Business School forges relationships with senior executives and managers in business, finance and public sector organisations.
It is a mechanism through which the school's leadership team formally obtains external perspectives on its strategy, activities and reputation.
The board is made up of highly experienced and influential representatives from the business community, as well as not-for-profit organisations and academia.
Sanjay Sethi
Mr. Sethi has over 16 years of experience in auditing diverse global companies including big 4 public accounting firms and industries including Technology, Banking, Manufacturing, Construction & Pharmaceuticals sectors. Mr. Sethi has a proven track record of managing Enterprise Risks and achieving financial growth, and process improvements across EMEA, Americas, Asia, and Australia.
Mr. Sethi has a track record of achieving excellence in profitable and positive change management from strategy to successful execution, demonstrated abilities in broad conceptual thinking, and problem-solving with strong analytical and communication skills.
Prior to Verizon, Mr. Sethi has served with Santander Bank - UK, Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP - UK, Deloitte LLP - UK, and Deloitte Haskins and Sells - India in a variety of Assurance and Advisory appointments. He holds an ACA and Bachelor of Commerce, Honours degree from India.
Catherine Hearn
Catherine is an experienced Senior HR Director and Non-executive Director with strong strategic HR, remuneration committee and pension scheme experience. As a former Group HR Director at The Economist Group, she brings expertise in recruiting and developing talent, engagement and reward strategies, business growth, post-acquisition integration and restructuring.
Catherine previously served as a member of the Board of Trustees and the Remuneration Committee at Nottingham Trent University, and as a chair and trustee has stewarded defined benefit pension schemes through periods of challenging periods of change.
René Carayol
René is quite simply one of the world’s leading executive coaches, working with some of the Fortune 500’s and FTSE 100’s top Chief Executive Officers (CEO’s) and their executive teams.
He speaks with the authority and confidence of the expert practitioner who has seen and experienced it all before. René draws much from his own unique experiences as managing director at IPC Magazines and serving on a variety of boards including Pepsi, IPC Media and the Inland Revenue.
The only position in the business that has no preparatory training or development whatsoever is the CEO. The most important and probably the most challenging job in the business, and on Day One, it is all brand new to the new incumbent, and there is no one around to show them what needs to be done.
It is the role that rarely has an appropriate job description and even rarer is there any form of handover. Far too often the opportunity presents itself rather suddenly and for whoever is approached, it is very hard to turn down.
René has acquired a reputation for providing first hand advice and support for a series of successful CEOs in the Fortune 500, FTSE 100 and all around the world. Many may claim to have worked at the ‘sharp end’ with many CEOs, but in actual fact very few have. He has worked closely with Jim Yong Kim – President of The World Bank, Antony Jenkins – CEO Barclays Bank, Mario Greco – CEO Generali and Maria Ramos – CEO Absa Bank, and hardly any can match his sustained track record of success.
There is no universal solution or approach for supporting a CEO, as each one is as individual as their fingerprints. It is without a doubt, the toughest job in the world, but it is also the best job in the world.
René acquires case studies and stories from the frontline and first hand. There are exciting adventures, emotional anecdotes and enough drama to excite any audience. René delivers learning wrapped up as never to be forgotten stories told by a master storyteller. You will want to hear them again and again.
René specialises in delivering performances that show precisely how contemporary leaders can electrify an audience through a powerful and authentic emotional connection. He demonstrates just how compelling an emotionally intelligent approach can be. He is never about theory - it is all practical and pragmatic leadership insights and tips. No one ever forgets being at one of his sessions.
René is an accomplished visiting professor at Cass Business School. His critically acclaimed latest book, Spike – What are you great at? enables all of us to unleash our inherent strengths and realise our true potential. As René says, “If you accept your limitations you go beyond them”.
Will Banks
An alumni of Roehampton University, Will has had a successful career in senior financial and board level executive positions, which have spanned across Australia, Europe, and the United Kingdom. With an expertise in leading businesses through financial regulatory authorisations, mobilisations, or crisis management, he has dedicated over two decades to building, advising, and managing global financial service institutions and start-ups. Successful ventures have ranged from traditional retail and investment banks to neo banks, electronic money institutions and brokerages.
Whilst working for the ‘big 4’ clearing banks in the United Kingdom, managing Global Markets balance sheets of up to £234b, Will progressed quickly through the ranks, via multiple promotions, where he forged a reputation as an effective and equitable business leader, who is not only results-driven, but consistently improves business performance through an inclusive approach.
Will has been sought-out for various roles during his career, from the Bank of England, where he rescued and managed a ‘Quantitative Easing Scheme’, to Lloyds Banking Group, where he received the prestigious ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’, for his contribution to the prominent TSB divestment programme. He has also accepted the positions of CEO and CFO for several fintech start-ups and in 2019, was granted permanent residency to Australia, via the “Distinguishing Talent Visa Program”, selected due to his international reputation as a fintech professional. He was in fact the first migrant from Europe and the first from the Global Fintech Sector to be offered this rare visa.
Whilst in Australia, Will founded DayTek Capital, an Australian Financial Services licensed business, which developed a range of innovative and digitally advanced financial service products and investment opportunities. In 2021, the business was acquired by two investment funds. Since then, Will has launched a Crypto Custody Bank and heads up a venture capitalist firm, backed by a large listed Chinese multinational.
To support students in Australia and the United Kingdom, Will has accepted the positions of Executive Advisor and mentor at QUT, Expert in Residence and mentor at Griffith University and sits on the Advisory Board of Roehampton Business School in addition to mentoring and lecturing, since 2008. From 2021, he has been providing business advise to the elders of the Queensland Wakka Wakka people.
Claire Deuchar
Claire Deuchar was appointed as the Chief Information Officer for the RNLI in 2018 and holds responsibility for developing the organisation’s Ambition and Strategy for 2050. Her work ensures that the RNLI has the right information, data and tools to run its lifesaving service, factories, shops, college and hotel. As part of this, Claire is leading an evolution of the organisation’s technology capabilities, driving the delivery next generation data and insights.
Claire was previously the Global Procurement Director for BP’s retail business, which covered all aspects of supply chain and procurement, and Head of Procurement at Coca-Cola Enterprises UK.
Chad Wilson
Chad is Head of Product Design at JP Morgan, sitting within Wholesale Payments. Chad leads global payments teams across 4 chapters: CX and VOC insights, Product Strategy, Research and Design and Product design operations.
John Green
John started his career with Unilever in finance, but left after 4 years to pursue a career in buying with Sainsbury. He bought a wide range of food products before running a cost optimisation programme across all buying functions and then heading up their procurement function.
He left Sainsbury's to set up a global buying function for Rentokil Initial, the business services group, before branching out in 2010 to work for himself running a business improvement consultancy, Mobius Services Ltd, focusing on cost, process and team effectiveness improvement.
The transition from large corporate to running your own business was a massive change, with very different pressures but he found it very liberating and it freed up time to support other fledgling business owners.
John is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply and has been on the Advisory Board at Roehampton Business School since 2013 and has chaired it since 2017. He is also the sponsor of The Mobius Services Undergraduate Prize For Business Readiness.
Tim Muzio
Tim has worked within the recruitment industry for over 16 years predominately within the Financial Services sector across the UK and Ireland. Tim currently works at Odgers Interim which is a division of Odgers Berndtson that specialises in executive interim management at the highest level, he operates a wide range set of clients placing Senior Interim Executives within Retail Banking, Payments & FinTech organisations.
Tim has a proven track record working with all levels of candidate from graduate to executive in providing strong commercial assistance in how to approach the market as a new entrant or how to stay relevant and keep up with the ever changing employment market.
David Tidey
David Tidey is the Head of IT at The Wellcome Sanger Institute near Cambridge where he is carrying out an interim role managing Enterprise IT Service Delivery. The Wellcome Sanger Institute is a world leader in genome sequencing and has played a key role in the identification of variants during the COVID pandemic.
David has held a number of roles both outside and within IT over his career, including responsibilities for IT, Customer Services and a major Customer Services Transformation Programme. He recently worked on the merger of Richmond and Wandsworth Council's, running a major IT transformation programme and was the Head of IT for the merged organisation.
David holds an MBA and is a Fellow of the BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.
Michele Prigent
Michele Prigent is the Vice President Sales Administration at Paramount Pictures. Executive with over 25 years' experience in London and Los Angeles managing contract administration and scheduling for television and digital distribution worldwide, with particular focus on output deal management.
Leads on protocols and efficiencies to drive continuous improvement of business processes including software systems development, rights and availabilities, deals management and sales support. Open University Business Graduate. Executive Champion of Paramount’s Employee Resource Group “Thursday Think” - an employee led initiative to promote professional development for its members. Advisory Board Member, the Business School, University of Roehampton. Strategic thinker. Life-long learner.
George Iliev
George ILIEV is China Director and Director of Development Markets at the Association of MBAs (AMBA) in London. He manages the accreditation of MBA, MSc Management, MSc Entrepreneurship and Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) programmes at 115 universities and business schools in China, Japan, Russia, Eastern Europe, Turkey, Latin America, Spain and London.
George was a lecturer in China Business and Economy at Sofia University (Bulgaria) before 2007 and also managed a Chinese business news and analysis service on Dow Jones Factiva and Reuters Business Briefing for four years. He has founded two technology startups in London, one of which won EU FP7 funding.
George did an MBA at Emory University (Atlanta) and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; an MSc in China in Comparative Perspective at the London School of Economics (LSE); and a BA in Chinese Studies at Sofia University and Anhui University (China). He was a Fulbright Scholar at Emory University and a Chevening Scholar at the LSE. He speaks Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Spanish and his native Bulgarian.
George climbed a 6,088 m peak in the Bolivian Andes in 2009. In his spare time he writes a blogs exploring the parallels between nature and business.
Alexander Rawlinson
Alexander is Managing Director of ludlowthompson, a Residential Sales and Lettings Estate Agency with 8 branches across London. Ludlowthompson is a privately owned company primarily dealing with residential sales and lettings, looking after one of the largest letting portfolios in London with c. 2500 properties under management, collecting over £30m per annum in rents and selling over £200m worth of property each year.
A Chartered Manager, a member of the Business Advisory Board of Roehampton University and an active member of ARLA, NFOPP and the NAEA. He holds a BA Joint Honours degree in Economics and Geography from Newcastle University, a Diploma in Management and Leadership from Cranfield School of Management and an MBA from Bayes Business School (formerly CASS)..
Having worked from a graduate trainee to Managing Director, Alexander has been instrumental in the organic growth of the business over his 20 year career. Leading the company for the last 8 years he reports to the Board of Directors with full P&L responsibility for the company sales performance across 100 employees. Career highlights include the successful acquisition of competitor agents, a thriving apprentice program, achieving #1 status nationally on an independent review website with in excess of 5000 five star reviews and redesigning the employee rewards scheme improving retention by 40%.
Beverley Corson
Beverley Corson is the CEO of Wandsworth Chamber of Commerce, which supports businesses within the borough by connecting them to residents, visitors and key stakeholders, enhancing Wandsworth's vibrant local economy and outstanding quality of life.
The Chamber is widely regarded as one of the most dynamic in London and Beverley is proud to lead this great organisation for her local community.
Beverley also runs her own business coaching, consulting and training company, ‘Next Level Business,’ and previously spent eleven years working for world-class learning and development providers.
Atul Mehta
Atul is the Managing Director for EMEA at Publicis Sapient and a member of the company’s leadership team. Publicis Sapient is the Digital Business Transformation arm of the Publicis Groupe. The EMEA operation of Publicis Sapient cover the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and the UAE.
Prior to joining Publicis Sapient, Atul was an Executive at IBM and prior to that a Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Atul has worked with clients across all industries in the USA, Europe and Asia. He is a passionate advocate for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Atul holds an Executive MBA and bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, both from the University of Bath. Atul is also the Chair of You Make it, a Charity based in East London, helping empower young unemployed women to realise their passions and pursue their goals.